Friday, 15 March 2013

The pressure is on for Rei as time is running out on her attempts to help the Alone in the hope of being reunited with her parents - indeed, so desperate has she become that she's seemingly willing to risk everything to make sure that the next Alone attack succeeds.

With this virtually suicidal mindset firmly implanted in her head, Rei seems determined to finish her mission with no regrets, and her first aim along those lines is to apologise to Akane for that whole tomato-squishing incident that occurred previously (Akane must be having a whole surfeit of tomato-related trauma building up in her psyche by this point). Of course, Akane has no hard feelings about the whole thing, and the next thing Rei knows she's invited to stay for dinner as it's steak and blowjob day in the Isshiki household, which in turn leads to a mayonnaise-related accident, a shared bath and a sleepover as the two girls secure their friendship.

Come the next morning however, it's time for Rei to swing into action, saying goodbye to her pet parakeet before setting off to fire all of her remaining arrows at the arriving Alone to power it up to its maximum capabilities. Little does she know however that Professor Isshiki, thanks to Himawari, has managed to figure out that an external source is powering up these creatures, and what's more they've worked out how to track down the source. Thus, as soon as Rei fires her first arrow, the chase is on to capture her while also defeating the Alone. No prizes for guessing who ultimately comes face to face with Rei and she's eventually apprehended...

Although what was going to happen was blatantly obvious from the get-go, the closing minutes of this week's episode did their job nicely in terms of setting up and revealing the whole thing after a small but satisfying brief slice of action. Before that point, this was another episode that was "just there" - there was nothing that you could really get excited about or laud from the rooftops, but just another blend of friendship and fan service that is feeling increasingly unspectacular as the series goes on. Still, perhaps it was all worth it for the climax of the episode, and a fine set up for the final couple of episodes that will hopefully up the ante.